Whenever and wherever men get together to socialize, the conversation will at some point almost certainly turn braggadocious. I can not say whether the same happens with women. I am not part of that subset. The subject can be anything. Who has the most, the least, the better, the smaller, the bigger, the faster. Who can eat/drink/smoke the most. The topics up for discussion are innumerable and as wide ranging as the cosmos. The facts, what there are of them, are very often, shall we say embellished, inaccurate, deceptive and sometimes even outright lies. Politely, it might be referred to as one-upmanship. Sooner or later “bull shit” is called. Someone recommends that everyone best roll up their pant cuffs. Put on your hip boots or waders because “it is getting mighty deep in here”.
The People of the good old U S of A have chosen to put a prime example of this behavior on display for the rest of the Planet to gaze upon in wonderment and horror. November 8, 2016, what was arguably the most powerful and influential Country on our little rock, elected one of those braggarts. One who believes that facts and reasonable behavior have no place in discourse and actions, especially if they detract from the perception of his total awesomeness. This “Stable Genius”, after all, has the biggest, the best, the most beautiful of everything there is, or ever was, in existence.
Even if one were to discount the boisterous, misleading, and false rhetoric leading up to the elections as “what all candidates do”, the very first official statement by the White House press secretary on the first full day of the Trump Administration was an ominous sign of what was yet to come. When Sean Spicer stepped up to the podium and declared, despite every piece of evidence proving what he was about to say a lie, that “This was the largest audience to ever witness and inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe”, it was just the beginning of what will reveal itself to be a long and torturous road. This fabrication was defended the very next day by Kellyanne Conway’s “Alternative Facts” argument with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. This, on the Second complete day of the new administration. Using any internet search engine, (I prefer duckduckgo), one will find page after page after page of unfounded statements, half-truths and outright lies told by the current inhabitants of the Executive Branch of Our Government. Trump can certainly claim bragging rights to this milestone. Even Glenn Beck noted his penchant for stretching the truth during the campaign.
So, I’m going to get at least a couple, and if this administration manages to survive its first term and maybe “win” a second, I predict a shortage.
Maybe there is an investment opportunity here.